Saturday was our handicap start “Round-the-Harbour Race” for Easter. The plan was a race from the usual starting location off Point Piper up the harbour to Shark Island then to Obelisk Bay, Lady Martin, Wedding Cake to Bradley’s Head then around Shark Island again and then run back to the start/finish line. In previous events there was an extra leg to include the mark off Clark Island, but given the light wind, that leg was scratched. A couple of competitors decided to shorten the race even further… but, hey, that’s what Easter is all about: individual rule-making!
The day started with glassy water, but the wind slowly built to 8 kts by start time and then up to 10-12 kts during the race. Boats started precisely at 2.00PM with those boats with the lowest handicap starting first and then the others starting at a time as determined by the club’s honorary handicapper. By twenty minutes from the first gun minutes, all boats were off and racing. Consistent 10-12kt wind with little swell or waves and not a lot of boats on the harbour… a perfect day.
In general, the race was “follow the leader”, but there were a few intra-race competitions, with Grant and Craig fighting it out as well as Connor and Hamish trying to outdo each other. The final winner was David Airey with a close second to Patrick Black and Scott Finlayson third. First Lady was Pia Hattersley.
Memorising the course seemed to cause some problems for several of the competitors with one assuming that the course went as far as Manly. Hmmm.
Big thanks to the on-water team of Tim Heath, Mark Dagworthy and Quinn Pearson.
